Battle of Lodi

The Battle of Lodi was one of the decisive battles of the Italian Campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte in the French Revolutionary Wars. A retreating Austrian army under Feldzeugmeister (Lieutenant General) Johann Beaulieu was brought to battle by Napoleon at Lodi, and Karl Philipp Sebottendorf's Austrian rear guard stayed behind to fight a defensive battle. Napoleon led a massive charge that killed Beaulieu and defeated the Austrian army.

Background
In May 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte forced the Kingdom of Sardinia to sue for peace and destroyed the only Austrian army between them and Milan, under the command of Eugen Mercy d'Argenteau. Bonaparte and his army proceeded to invade Austrian Italy and forced General Johann Beaulieu to withdraw with his army. In a series of sieges, Napoleon captured Austrian strongholds such as Modena and Mantua, and he prepared to defend them against counteroffensives. Beaulieu attempted to recapture Mantua but was forced to retreat, and Napoleon proceeded to begin a chase to decisively defeat the Austrians. Facing the Adda River, the Austrian Army was brought to battle in the town of Lodi by Napoleon. They were caught in the middle of their retreat, and Beaulieu attempted to escape while the rearguard under Karl Philipp Sebottendorf fought a defensive battle.

Battle
Napoleon's army included three cavalry regiments, including his own General Staff. He also had an army consisting of French Old Guard, Young Guard, and Fusiliers. Napoleon trailed two regiments of horse artillery behind him in preparation for a full-scale attack on the Austrians, who were marching through the town square over the bridge. Louis-Alexandre Berthier told him that Beaulieu was withdrawing from battle, so Napoleon ordered his men to kill or capture him before he could escape. Rather than launch an attack on the bulk of the Austrian army, Napoleon and his full army attacked Beaulieu himself. Napoleon was unhorsed and wounded while charging through Austrian troops along the riverside on the bank of the town, but the French cavalry made it over the bridge and Beaulieu was slain. With the death of Beaulieu, Austrian morale suffered, and Napoleon began mopping-up operations.

The climax of the battle was reached when the French infantry, unable to horde over the bridge, engaged with Austrian German Fusiliers and Tyrolean Jaegers in the town square. In a massive battle of hand-to-hand and bayonet melee, the French National Guardsmen were close to routing but the Austrians broke first, primarily due to lack of morale. Many French regiments fled the opposite direction, but they had enough to take on the rest of the Austrians. There were three more columns marching down the roads and two regiments in buildings. The French captured the Arsenal with ease but the Townhall was taken after heavy fighting in which the whole horde of French infantry entered the building and massacred the Austrians. The other three Austrian columns fled without a fight, and Napoleon enjoyed his first major victory in the war in Italy.

Aftermath
With the death of Beaulieu, command in Italy passed to General Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, who tried to recapture Mantua three more times. These attempts failed, and in one of these, Napoleon won another victory in the Battle of Arcole in November 1796. His vicotires in Italy helped to engineer his rise in politics as well as favor, and Lodi was the first step in his rise to power.